Clostridium is a bacterial genus that secrets toxins causing disease in poultry, animals, and humans. Anaerobic bacterial pathogens are a serious economic burden on the agricultural industry. Bacteria of the Clostridium family represent a particular burden, because these bacteria cause serious diseases in poultry and other economically valuable domestic animals. Previous efforts to control these organisms have relied upon sanitary measures and the administration of antibiotics in the animal feed.
Necrotic enteritis (NE) is the most common and financially devastating bacterial disease in modern broiler flocks. It is an infectious disease caused by Clostridium perfringens, which is a gram-positive, anaerobic bacterium that can be found in soil, litter, dust and at low levels in the intestine of healthy birds. Clostridium perfringens only causes NE when it transforms from non-toxin producing type to toxin producing type.
There are five types of C. perfringens (A, B, C, D and E) which produce a number of toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon, iota and CPE). The α-toxin, an enzyme (phospholipase C) is believed to be a key to the occurrence of NE. However, a recent study has shown that an isolate that does not produce α-toxin can still cause disease. In addition, a new toxin called NetB has been recently identified in disease causing C. perfringens isolates. The intestine of infected birds is friable and distended with gas and gross lesions caused by toxins. In the acute form of NE, birds often die before showing clinical signs. However, in its subclinical form the disease is much more financially damaging for the producer. The commonly observed symptoms of the disease vary with the age of birds.
There remains a need in the art for a safe, economical and effective method of protecting intensively cultivated domestic animals, including avians, such as chickens, from infection by Clostridium species. Clostridia caused diseases cause both human suffering and economic loss in livestock. A cost-effective manner to intervene in these diseases would aid in disease management systems.
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